Christos Yannaras Research Articles

Sacred Music in a Sacred Space: Performance as Communal Event


 
 
 During the Easter Week of 1999, the composer John Tavener (1944-2013) visited the Holy Trinity Archdiocesan Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New York City, to attend a unique concert, that occured under the auspicies of His Eminence Archbishop Spyridon, featuring Tavener's sacred para- liturgical music, conducted by the late maestro Dino Anagnost (1944-2011). Using this event as a base, regarding its reception and meaning, this paper ventures to compose a theoretical context, in which the performance of sacred works can function in a sacred performance space, while focusing on the composer's understanding of the notion of sacred in composition and in music making in general. Througout the course this research paper, the reader will explore ways in which the systematic application of musicological and theological tools on the complete musical material of the performed works, leads to a provocative analogy of sacred music being performed in a sacred space with a communal event within the church community. Ultimately, this paper suggests that such an occassion is closer to the idea of ecclesial event; an original concept created by the greek philosopher and theologian Christos Yannaras (1936-).
 
 

Christos Yannaras's View on the History of Western Theology from St. Augustine to Nietzsche

The article analyzes the anti-Western and radically anti-ecumenical theology of the Greek Orthodox thinker Christos Yannaras and his idea of gradual centuries-old deviation of Western theology from the authentic tradition of the early Church Fathers. The study touches upon such subjects as intellectual influences on the process of formation of Yannaras’s thought, the role of the apophatic mystical tradition in Christian theology, and the basic roots of his radical anti-Scholasticism. The article also contains the detailed survey of Yannaras’s analysis of Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘God is dead’-concept as the natural final point of the Western intellectual discourse’s degradation and dechristianization. There’s also a set of counterarguments from Yannaras’s opponents – Eastern Orthodox theologians Pantelis Kalaitzidis and Vasilios Makrides – who stand for dialogue, openness, ecumenical activity and inclusiveness of the modern Orthodox Church and reject any attempts of its intellectual self-isolation and solipsization.

The crisis of western theology: the idea of the «death of God» in the teachings of H. Yannaras and T. Altitser

The article is devoted to understanding the phenomenon of the crisis of modern theology in the context of the doctrine of the death of God. A comparative analysis of the theological concepts of Christos Yannaras and Thomas Altitzer is carried out in order to explain the theoretical differences in understanding the event of the death of God in modern Orthodox and Western theology. The thesis is substantiated that the Orthodox and Western versions of the crisis theology are post-metaphysical in nature and philosophically proceed from the theological reception of the teachings of G.V.F. Hegel, F. Nietzsche and M. Heidegger.

ENERGIES AND PERSONHOOD: A CHRISTOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN IDENTITY

AbstractThe assertion that Christ is truly and fully human supports using Christology as a starting point to frame discussions surrounding humanity. This article focuses on the Christological distinction between personhood and nature that is made in the Chalcedonian Definition and argues that it could reframe current discussions in the science–theology discourse on humanity identity. As discussions of human identity often center around issues such as personhood, consciousness, and the soul, taking this Christological perspective into account means that scholars must consider whether scientific contributions are engaging with characteristics of human nature or personhood, and recognize the theological distinction. To address some of the troubling implications of this reframing, this article proposes a vision of humanity as natural energies expressing an unrepeatable personhood, based largely on the work of the Eastern Orthodox theologian Christos Yannaras. This proposal takes traditional Christology seriously in its relevance to discussions on human identity, while possibly enabling even more productive engagement with scientific knowledge.

Neo-Orthodox Epistemology: Three Steps Away from Greece

If there is one pivotal epistemological issue the Eastern and the Western Christian churches have agreed upon, this must be the understanding that God’s essence is inherently and conclusively unavailable to humans. This settlement is based on the shared assumption that there is no possible mode of accessing this or any essence, other than either from objective or subjective knowl­edge. Neo-Orthodoxy has preserved the heritage of Pateric apophaticism and has built upon the shared assumption its own, ecclesial accessibility instead to God’s existence. In this exclusivist orientation Neo-Orthodoxy has further proclaimed itself the only true heir to ancient Greece, cutting off the West and criticizing it as a bastion of rational alienation. A phenomenological investigation of Greek statuary art, however, addresses prosody as a third, hitherto unexplored mode of epistemological intelligibility for an access to the essence of “God.” Through the implementation of suprasegmental theory in the phenomenological reduction of a certain statue, we revisit certain key concepts in the discussion between Christos Yannaras, whose works comprise the Neo-Orthodox manifesto, and Martin Heidegger, who claimed that the Greek statue “is the god himself.” Amongst the conclusions emerging from this comparative hermeneutics is the idea that in fact the West may have remained all along more ready than the East to move into the next historical step of man’s self-elucidation in the light of what is Holy.

The Trinity: Prototype of Real Existence or Danger to Political Wellbeing? Tanner, Volf, and Yannaras in Conversation

Kathryn Tanner maintains that political theologies based on the Trinity are not only unsound, but potentially dangerous. Her primary concern is that the Trinity, by definition, cannot serve as a “model” for human socio-political organization. Miroslav Volf, while sharing Tanner’s sense that Trinitarian political theologies are fraught, nevertheless, maintains that the Trinity can serve as a “vision” for human socio-political relations, albeit not as a “program”. This article brings Tanner and Volf into conversation with Eastern Orthodox philosopher-theologian Christos Yannaras, whose Trinitarian political theology regards the Trinity as the “prototype” or “archetype” of a mode of existence in which humans can participate by transcending their natures, with the aim of realizing truth. This article argues that Yannaras offers a novel way of conceptualizing Trinitarian political theology which escapes Tanner and Volf’s criticisms, on the one hand, and offers Social Trinitarianism a fresh and fertile perspective that could advance its discourse.

Christos Yannaras’s Conception of State, Society and Politics and the Greek Apophatic Tradition

Abstract The article demonstrates a concept of state, society and politics coined by contemporary Greek religious philosopher Christos Yannaras. The concept derives from two sources: on the one hand from the criticism of the modern cataphatic forms of state and society and on the other hand from the apophatic character of the Greek polis. With this creative critical synthesis, based on the apophatic attitude, Yannaras produces a conception of a new polity, contributing to the liberation of the human subject from various aspects of alienation in the cataphatic systems.

Theory of the Icon of Christos Yannaras

The article regards the phenomenon of the icon in the interpretation of Greek theologian and philosopher Christos Yannaras. His work Personality and Eros is taken as a basis, where the author describes this phenomenon, based on a thorough body of works of Orthodox thought.The icon is primarily considered not only as a model of reality, reflection or image of events and objects, or allegory-allegory; attention is focused on the icon as a category of cognition. The study traces the conditions of functioning of the iconological language, as well as its connection with apophatic and cataphatic theological thought. The specifics of the poetics of the iconological language are also revealed, aiming at both concealment and elucidation of the truth.An attempt is also made to transfer the theory of the icon to the anthropological plane, in accordance with the erotic gesture of self-denial. The focus is on the aesthetic component of the iconic perception not only of icons but also of other phenomena of art or the surrounding world. Thus, owing to the derivatives of the theory of the icon, the analysis of art in the anthropological plane is carried out.Possible types of reduction of the iconological language according to the function of the icon as a means of cognition are also revealed. In this regard, the significance of the so-called ‘theology of assimilation’ and its possible connection with the moralistic reduction in the interpretation of Ch. Yannaras are analyzed. On the other hand, aesthetic reduction is also described, which, in turn, has the ability to provoke iconoclastic resistance.Thus, the aim of the work is to study the phenomenon of the icon as a category of knowledge in the works of Ch. Yannaras, as well as to consider the icon and the iconological language in their connection with issues of the aesthetic and anthropological nature.

Sacred Art Between Tradition and Personal Expression: The Orthodox Icon and Artistical Transgressions of the Canon

The aim of this article is to present a personal reflection regarding the theoretical/philosophical relation between the generally accepted theological grounding of icon painting and other contemporary artistical endeavours to integrate the religious feeling – of Christian-Orthodox inspiration. This reflection is based on a mixture of ideas from different thought-frameworks which have as common ground the need for speculating on issues such as ‘tradition understanding’, ‘personal expression’, ‘art and religiousness’, exactly those key-themes that are constituting the fundamental threads of my argumentation. Hence, my appeal to authors like Lucian Blaga, Leonid Uspensky, Martin Heidegger, Paul Evdochimov, and Christos Yannaras. The point of departure for my study is the powerful and unavoidable conflict between the need for personal artistic interpretations of religious themes – expressed through contemporary artistic techniques and the application of contemporary metaphysical modelings – and the need for attaching oneself to an ‘authentic’ tradition of religious experience and to a community with deep roots in history. My all-round thesis is that this conflict cannot be, at least, clarified by choosing, from the artistic point of view, between two extremes: contemporary secular art on the one hand, and sacred, canonical art on the other hand, but by finding conceptual common pathways.

Ontology of Personality in the Apophatic Theology: Development of the Ideas from Lossky to Manoussakis

This article examines the path of the ontology of personality (πρόσωπον) in apophatic theology taken by Orthodox thinkers such as Vladimir Lossky, John Zizioulas, Christos Yannaras and John Manoussakis, and analyzed in dialogue with contemporary philosophy. It is described how the dependence of existentialism, personalism and phenomenology on the ontology of personality (the Another) is established, whose origins lie in Christological and Trinitarian decrees (Lossky). It is analyzed what way ontology in the personal sense, derived from the personality of the Father, takes precedence over ontology in terms of being (Zizioulas). It is pointed out that it is the Nietzschean (“God is dead”) and Heideggerian (“Nothing”) post-metaphysical concepts that have cleared the way for a genuine ontology of personality in its apophatic mystery, manifested and experienced in the phenomenon of “eros” which affirms the primordially interpersonal character of being (Jannaras). It is considered in what the ways in which modern phenomenology, using the ontology of personality, eliminates all the systemic metaphysical elements of thought, opening the way to a mere non-conceptual experience of experiencing the otherness of the Other (Manoussakis). Within the framework that was sketched above, the article offers the following: a critical examination of the personalistic vector in Orthodoxy; reflections condemning any kind of personality reduction; and also the ways and purposes opened up by a new understanding of the anthropological dimension have been indicated.

The Category of ‘Ethical Apophaticism’ in Modern Orthodox Theology

AbstractThis article begins by summarizing the concept of ethical apophaticism in the theology of John Zizioulas and Christos Yannaras. The impetus for this concept, namely a desire to maintain the irreducibility of the human person to extrinsic ethical categories, is noted and celebrated. However, it is proposed that to do fuller justice to the understanding of the ethical and moral life in the Orthodox tradition, a certain ‘ethical cataphaticsm’ needs to be brought into the discussion. Some potential lineaments of what this might entail for these authors are highlighted (repentance and love) before seeking to supplement them with a discussion of the commandments of Christ through the lens of the theology of Sophrony Sakharov. It is argued that Christ’s commandments provide the sure path to developing an ethical cataphaticism that can work in tandem with the insights of the category of ethical apophaticism offered by Zizioulas and Yannaras.

The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer by Stephen C. Headley

Reviewed by: The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer by Stephen C. Headley Hannah Hunt Stephen C. Headley. The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer. Volos, Greece: Volos Academy Publications, 2020. 253 pp. Stephen C. Headley's credentials for writing this exploration of poetic forms of prayer are his decades of experience as an Orthodox priest and his self-described experience as a "cultural anthropologist" who worked for many years in Indonesia as well as more recently in Moscow and South India. He draws therefore on some non-Christian examples of prayer practice in addition to the familiar territory of early Eastern Christian monks, providing some interesting insights into the global—one might even say, universal—hunger for communion with the Divine or a higher being. Part exegesis of patristic and scriptural writings, part celebration of the contemporary practice of prayer traditions, part theological reflection, The Songs of the Bridal Chamber: Monks at Prayer asserts the important contribution to human salvation offered by a personal encounter with God through private and communal prayer, in addition to participation in the church's sacraments. The book is divided into three sections, loosely covering "Poetic Prayer," "From Poems to Prayer," and the all-encompassing "Hope." There is no introduction providing a map of the route to be taken. Instead, Headley [End Page 278] dives straight into an overview of theological anthropology, drawing on the writings of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, mentioning (but does not dwelling on) fourth-century Palestine, Saint Isaac of Nineveh's emphasis on silence, the Liber Graduum, and Saint Gregory of Sinai. He then migrates to discussing the Great Lavra and Saint John of Damascus, illuminated by some observations about modern hymnography. Section 2 takes us to a consideration of "Indian respiration" where (perhaps as a parallel to Evagrius's concept of logismoi) thoughts control the celebrant's actions, and the relationship between word and sacrifice in Vedic tradition is explored. The connection between this and some Sufi traditions and Christian practice is hinted at, with the significance of silence in contemplative prayer being a shared experience. Chapter 5 aims to move "from anthropology towards a theology of prayer," however (as elsewhere), the stated intentions of the chapter are sometimes not entirely followed consistently, and the author's argument becomes interrupted by extensive citation. Here, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Ephrem, Feuerbach, and Bulgakov are placed in dialogue with each other. A further comparison between Eastern Christian and Asian religious practice is again explored in the differences between oral and written prayers, with a peregrination into the physical gestures and rituals employed in Indian temples. I found myself wanting a little more analysis of how this related to the Christian context and more actual explanation of the details presented. A chart on page 161, for example, needed glossing so that the terminology would be clear to the uninitiated reader. The final section opens with a question: how in Europe, both Western and Eastern, should we understand secularization? This is an important consideration and could have been flagged as a topic in a more substantial and focused introduction to the book. For answers, Headley mines the work of the twentieth-century Saint Justin Popović, before returning to Saints Ephrem, Isaac, and Maximus. This part of the book shifts away from the earlier analysis of poetic forms of prayer into a more general theological reflection and contains some lengthy digressions. Chapter 8 takes us from the twentieth century back to Saint Maximus and Saint Isaac once again for a discussion of eschatology, reminding the reader that both scripture and tradition arise as events of truth incarnate in Christ's body. The insights of contemporary theologians Christos Yannaras and Metropolitan John Zizioulas are set against more citations from the Philokalia (here amounting to a nine-page extract from the Four Centuries of Maximus). Chapter 9 introduces an exegesis of New Testament eschatology that also refers the reader to the Orthodox Study Bible. The book concludes that "There is no End to Hope in God," a comforting message of pastoral support. There are many nuggets of wisdom and pastoral insight in this book, but I did find myself unsure at...

Семантични особености на християнската богословска терминология / Semantic Characteristics of Christian Theological Terminology

This paper explores the specific semantic nature of Christian theological terminology and proposes a classification and a theoretical and methodological model for its analysis. Regarding the reality that is signified, a distinction is drawn within this terminology between technical terms (referring to an empirically verifiable reality) and iconic terms (referring to an empirically unverifiable reality), which differ considerably in their semantic characteristics and principles of conceptualization. The epistemological rationale for the proposed classification is to be found in the Greek philosopher Christos Yannaras’ conception of apophatic language and the principles of Orthodox Christian iconology. Keywords: Christian theological terminology, semantics, apophaticism, icon, iconic, Yannaras

Between Byzantium and Paris: Christos Yannaras and Personalism of Russian Religious Philosophy

Between Byzantium and Paris: Christos Yannaras and Personalism of Russian Religious Philosophy

Uzdrowienie w „spoczynku w Duchu Świętym” i jako owoc modlitwy wstawienniczej

Niniejszy artykuł porusza antropologiczne, teologiczne i zbawcze aspekty takich zjawisk, jak modlitwa o uzdrowienie, uzdrowienie, spoczynek w Duchu Świętym. Omówiona jest definicja i natura tych zjawisk, źródła biblijne, takie aspekty antropologiczne, jak konieczność całościowego spojrzenia na uzdrowienie, niebezpieczeństwo zredukowania tych zjawisk do czysto psychologicznego mechanizmu itd. Ukazane są też symptomy uzdrowienia wewnętrznego. Przytoczone są także spisane świadectwa osób, które doświadczyły „spoczynku w Duchu Świętym” i łączyło się to w ich życiu z uzdrowieniem wewnętrznym.

Apophatic Community: Yannaras on Relational Being

For Martin Heidegger the story of Western philosophy ended basically in egocentrism or the metaphysics of “subjectivity”; however, he acknowledged the possibility of another path in Greece: that of pre-Socratic thinking. Yet, there is a further path he did not acknowledge: the tradition of Orthodox philosophy and theology. The paper focuses on some key works of the prominent contemporary Greek philosopher Christos Yannaras, for a long time professor in Athens. Taking over the notions of “Being” and ontology, Yannaras construes them (with Heidegger) not as ontic “substances” amenable to epistemic knowledge, but as guideposts to “relational” or participatory experience. His early text On the Absence and Unknowability of God: Heidegger and the Aeropagite explores the (at least partial) affinity between the German thinker and the Orthodox stress on “apophaticism.” For Yannaras, apophaticism profoundly reorients philosophical inquiry; it also has important implications for human “personhood” and “freedom.” Far from denoting individuation, personhood for him means a face (prosopon) standing out toward others, just as freedom transcends self-will in the direction of a relational event. By way of conclusion, I probe the status of relational “community.” For Yannaras, I ask, is community a concretely achieved way of life (exemplified by the Orthodox Church); or does it point more apophatically (and prophetically) to a future advent?

Aristotelian Marxism, Critical Metaphysics: The Political Theology of Christos Yannaras

ABSTRACTIn this paper I will examine Professor Christos Yannaras’ engagement with Political Theology. I will observe his critique to what he perceives as a dominant type of Political Theology in his age. I will insist on the fact that what Yannaras criticizes is a possible redundancy of the adjective “Political” in the term “Political Theology,” since every genuine Theology is already political in nature. This means that Yannaras is reacting against a specific type of Political Theology, which he perceives as an artificial attempt to reunite at the ideological level two domains, namely the secular and the transcendental, which are divided at the ontological level due to the dualism of Western metaphysics. Political Theology is reproached as a contemporary version of Apologetics, i.e., an arrière-garde battle of Christianity in the age of secularization; Yannaras, nevertheless, proposes his own version of Political Theology, which is based on apophaticism and on what he terms “critical ontology,” referring to a community that attains its truth through relations open to empirical confirmation or falsification in the future. I shall consequently observe Yannaras’ complex relation with Marxism. Yannaras does assume a sort of humanist and Aristotelian Marx, by exalting the contribution of the German philosopher to a paradigm shift in the History of Western thought. I shall also imply that Yannaras performs a deconstructive lecture of Marx and tries to open the Marxist text to novel interpretations against the scientism and the positivism that prevailed in Marxism as an official ideology of socialist regimes. I shall conclude by an overview of Yannaras’ philosophical gesture as a Eucharistic gathering of elements in tension, such as Phenomenology and Metaphysics, stasis and energeia, polis and the Ecclesia, and, last but not least, Politics and Theology.

The Eucharistic Community is Our Social Program: On the Early Development of Christos Yannaras' Political Theology

ABSTRACTUsually focusing on Roman Catholic and Protestant trajectories of thought, political theology seldom takes note of Orthodox Christianity and the politically informed theology and/or theologically informed politics it engenders. In this paper, I engage certain aspects of the contemporary political theology of Christos Yannaras, an academic philosopher, Christian Orthodox theologian and Greek public intellectual. I focus (a) on his understanding of both the political and the ecclesial element of life and society as emerging from the same “mode of existence,” (b) on the way in which a political community, when primarily aiming at truth rather than usefulness and efficacy, strives to iconize the Trinity, and (c) on his critique of ideology, while (d) discerning the social and political context in which these ideas first appeared. This will by no means be a comprehensive overview of Yannaras’ political theology, as some core aspects thereof remain beyond the scope of my paper.

Personhood, Relational Ontology, and the Trinitarian Politics of Eastern Orthodox Thinker Christos Yannaras

ABSTRACTEastern Orthodox political theology has not received sufficient attention by the largely Protestant- and Catholic-dominated field of political theology. One of the Orthodox world's most important thinkers, Christos Yannaras, who has written extensively on politics, is relatively unknown amongst English-speaking Protestant and Catholic theological circles because his substantive work on politics is only available in Greek. This essay provides an introduction to one of Yannaras’ most important works on political theology, The Inhumanity of Right, which has not been translated into English. Yannaras approaches politics through his person-centric anthropology and relational ontology, viewing the purpose and goal of politics as “authentic existence” in communion with the Trinitarian God. The essay seeks to demonstrate, via Yannaras’ political thought, that Orthodox theologians bring a unique perspective to common political problems and challenges and that the field of political theology would be enriched from a deeper engagement with Orthodox political theology.

CHRISTIAN PRACTICE AS THE FOUNDATION FOR MODERN POLITICAL THEOLOGY

In the twentieth century, the Orthodox Christian diaspora played a critical role in the development of modern Orthodox theology. Forced to take up residence in the West, major figures like Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944), Georges Florovsky (1893–1979), Vladimir Lossky (1903–1958), and Alexander Schmemann (1921–1983) successfully reinvigorated Orthodox theology for succeeding generations. Their works have become the standard readings in theological faculties and seminaries the world over. But despite the durable and multifaceted heritage of modern Orthodox theology, contemporary Orthodox Christians have been, for the most part, rather timid in thoroughly engaging themselves with matters political. Notable exceptions include Nicolas Berdyaev (1874–1948), who provides a far-reaching critique of both state sovereignty and the Orthodox Church's historic role in supporting worldly realms of authority. For his part, Bulgakov offers some penetrating insights in favor of the separation of church and state in the very brief chapter devoted to this topic, “Orthodoxy and the State,” in his classic treatise, The Orthodox Church. Somewhat later in the twentieth century, the few noteworthy authors who have much more specifically engaged with broader political questions include the current archbishop of Albania, Anastasios Yannoulatos, and arguably the most important Orthodox political philosopher today, Christos Yannaras.